Social media has an impact on all of us whether we are a yoga teacher trying to spread the word about your studio, or a student looking for a place to take a class. We have come to rely on Facebook, Twitter, the internet for information, and at any given moment, we find ourselves on either side of the marketing equation. As a business owner or instructor how do we navigate the social media world and use it to enhance our reach and develop a larger following? How do some people do it so well and others can’t seem to post a Facebook message that catches likes or shares?

Kirstin Pope has three words for you…and they’re FREE! Content. Clarity. Consistency. She will present her tips at a free lunchtime workshop open to all festival attendees on Saturday 1-1:45 p.m. The Power of the Share: Using the Three “’C’s” of Social Media Marketing will be a hardy dish of the stuff we need to know to boost our online presence, share our mission as instructors, and add to the bottom line in our yoga business. As Kirstin explains, we share our intentions, our knowledge, our hearts in the studio with our students, let’s learn how to convey that in a message that can then be shared online, creating a ripple of awareness with more “shares” and expanding our message. She’ll explain how to use the three “C’s” help us hone our message.

​Kirstin is the perfect person to guide us through the marketing maze as the Social Media Marketing guru and Official Photographer of the Dubuque Yoga & Festival. She’s the magic behind our online presence, creating text, managing images, posts and video content and creating buzz to increase web traffic. She has learned that there are many ways to get business. She explains that the easiest and least expensive is to have someone tell someone else about your product and services by sharing a good review. “People in the holistic arena aren’t always comfortable or certain how to market what they love doing and the social media funnel is hard to navigate.” Tune in to her tips and learn more about the “power of the share.”

"When you get lost in what you're doing for work, and if you would even do it for free, then you're doing your passion. That's what I'm doing." -Kirstin Pope

​Spending most of her professional career in marketing and sales, she has recently added some credentials that have created an interesting path for her. What she describes as a crooked path seems more like a convergence of passions that aligned when the time was right. Kirstin has combined her love of yoga, her creative eye in photography, her marketing skills, and entrepreneurial spirit to form her own business, Ripple Yoga Photography, formerly Ripple Infinity Marketing. It’s a unique combination of skills blended from different parts of her life that she truly and simply said “Yes!” to.

​“A pivotal point in my life was beginning a yoga practice in 2013. It changed my life! Yoga, breathing, meditation have given me the ability to trust and love myself first so that I can better help others. I remember leaving a hot yoga class at Ignite Yoga Studio in Dubuque one evening and looking up at the stars and the universe and almost shouting I love how yoga makes my heart feel full of happiness – I want more!” She certified as a teacher in Core Power yoga flow, then a 20- hour training in Yoga for PTSD, and finally a 200-hour certification from Body & Soul. She teaches chair yoga in assisted living communities and senior centers in Madison where she now lives. She also designs classes for people with brain injuries and teaches yoga and meditation to the sales community. ​So why yoga photography? She admits that it’s a unique pairing. Her father introduced her to photography when she was 13 years old. He gave her a camera with some black and white film and told her to go out and take photos of things that made her happy. After playing all day with light, angles, shutter speed, she watched as they developed the rolls of film in his studio and her images magically developed. She was hooked. After years of shooting with him -- family events, sports, nature--she feels that he is the one that taught her what being in the moment truly means.

​“I am someone who has always seen life a little differently. I see life as vibrant colors and varying shades of gray. After starting my yoga practice I would pay attention to the yoga photos that people posted on Facebook and Twitter and felt a sort of happiness.” It was through her family and friends that she got her official start as a yoga photographer. It began with an event for Molly Schreiber, kids yoga instructor in Dubuque. Then several events followed: a shoot for a YTT calendar project, another shoot for Deb May, a local yoga instructor, and then, after being hired as the Social Media Coordinator for Body & Soul Wellness Center, she found herself as the official photographer for all three yoga festivals. Other assignments followed with individual yoga photo shoots for Sadie Nardini and Erin McGuire. Her passion for this niche felt like the right direction and now, with hundreds of individuals and groups under her belt, she can include the official photographer for the Minneapolis Yoga Conference, Madison’s Free To Breath Yoga Challenge and four cover photos for YogaIowa Magazine.

Surprisingly I wasn’t the first yogi to express reservations about being photographed. As a yogi and photographer Kirstin is ready to address this fear. Her tips for getting ready for the shoot come from a place of knowing yoga, how to guide people into poses and always with an eye for aesthetic. “It’s a necessary part of my process,” she says, “to help people peel away layer of fear when being photographed. “It’s helping people be a better version of themselves.” Which she loves doing. It comes through in the images that she creates.

​For more information about Ripple Yoga Photography, check out Kirstin Pope’s website at www.rippleyogaphotography.com. It’s filled with wonderfully creative shots. Look for great tips on her website for yogis planning to be photographed—what to do before, the day of, and then after you pose. Ripple Yoga Photography is a sponsor of the DYOF so check out her booth. Go HERE TO REGISTER for the 2017 Dubuque Yoga & Oneness Festival.